The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (or Check 21) is a federal law allowing a recipient of an original paper check to create an electronic substitute, thereby eliminating the need for further handling of the original check. Check 21 has directly impacted the way companies process incoming payments. Instead of processing paper checks through a multi-step process resulting in a cancelled paper check ultimately being returned back to the customer, companies may now image the paper checks to permit further electronic processing of the check images thereby enabling the original paper checks to be stored or destroyed after imaging. However, in order to ensure that errors are avoided, it is imperative that each check be properly scanned and processed before the paper check is destroyed. As a result, it now becomes desirable to accurately and efficiently track the processing status of check images and the location of the original checks during image processing so that the original checks are not processed improperly or destroyed prematurely.